Monday, 9 November 2009

Angry Guardian hits back at 'complacent' PCC

The Guardian today launches a no-holds barred response to the Press Complaints Commission which has said there was no "new evidence" to support the paper's claims of widespread phone hacking at the News of the World.The Guardian said in a statement: "This complacent report shows that the PCC does not have the ability, the budget or the procedures to conduct its own investigations."The report confirms the central allegation made by the Guardian and has not produced any independent evidence of its own to contradict a single fact in our coverage."Doubtless because of its restricted powers, the PCC has, unlike Nick Davies, not spoken to a single person involved in the widespread past practice of phone hacking, limiting its own original inquiries to an exchange of letters with someone who was not even at the News of the World at the time of the hacking."Top people in the military, police, government and royal household were warned that their that their messages might have been intercepted by private detectives working for newspapers. But the only people to have seriously inquired into any of this have been the police, lawyers, MPs, the Information Commissioner and reporters, including Nick Davies."If the press wants self-regulation it cannot allow external bodies to do the real work of investigation and regulation."The Guardian is also carrying a page one article MPs' anger at PCC 'whitewash' ; as well as an article by the reporter who made the original allegations Nick Davies: Only major blow is to PCC's credibility; and an editorial slamming the PCCEditorial: Cursory and complacent .Read the PCC report on phone-hacking here.

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery